REPORT ON THE TWO-DAY TRAINING PROGRAMME FOR BUILDERS, ENGINEERS AND

ARCHITECTS
A two-day training programme was organised by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE)
for builders, engineers and architects on August 13-14, 2002. Though this group forms the
backbone of the construction industry, their involvement is marginal in the entire process
popularising and implementing of rainwater harvesting. This training programme was structured
with two major objectives as listed below:
1) To impress and motivate this group to undertake rainwater harvesting
2) To impart technical know how on rainwater harvesting
THE PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-four professionals from construction companies, architectural
firms, engineering consultancies, government agencies like Military Engineering Services,
educational institutions and non-governmental organisations attended this programme.
Table 1: List of participants
BUILDERS AND CONSULTANTS
Larsen and Tuobro
Nirman Consultants
Northern Sanitation
Milind Kulkarni Consulting Engineers (PVT)
Limited
Sushma Engineering and Construction
Company
Ansal Housing and Construction Limited.
ARCHITECTS
Suresh Goel and Associates
Manik Engineers
Dimension Architects
Atrium Design
Lines
Roopam Mishra
Saurabh Popli
GOVERNMENT ORGANISATIONS
Military Engineering Services
NON GOVERNMENT ORGANISATIONS
Electronic Education and Technical Society
Centre for Environmental Education
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
The Delhi Public School Society

New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi

New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi
Gurgaon
New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi
Ahmedabad
Haryana

RESOURCE PERSONS: Besides the CSE team following resource persons shared their
knowledge and experiences with the participants
1. R. Jeya Kumar, Managing Director, Rajparis Civil Construction Limited, No: 162-B, Greams
Lane Thousand Lights Chennai-6 Telephone: 044-8290038/8290566
2. Akshay Kaul, Landscape Architect, VASHRA, Masjid Moth, South Extension, New Delhi-49,
011-6836891
3. Ahmed Ali Khan, Executive Engineer, Jamia Hamdard University, Tughlakhabad, New Delhi-62
THE PROGRAMME: The deliberations on the first day primarily focussed on the planning and
design aspects of rainwater harvesting. The days programme started with a session Dilli-o-

Dilli, which discussed the traditional water harvesting practices in Delhi -- its present status and
current water scenario. A presentation of the hydro-geological set up of Delhi was made by a
CSE staff member, which was followed by the session on rainwater harvesting and artificial
recharge.
Akshay Kaul, a leading landscape architect shared with participants some case studies of water
harvesting-based landscaping. A practical session followed in the latter half of the day, wherein
participants were each assigned two projects for planning and designing rainwater harvesting
systems. One of the sites was an unbuilt area where participants prepared architectural designs
and planned the water harvesting systems. These designs and estimates were presented at the
end of the day.
The second day was mainly spent on preparing guidelines for implementation of rainwater
harvesting techniques and evaluating the impact of rainwater harvesting. In order to appraise the
participants of the impacts of rainwater harvesting, a visit to Jamia Hamdard University in
Tughlakhabad and Panchsheel Park colony, two of the five model projects of CSE (the sites
where CSE had been involved in design and monitoring of rainwater harvesting systems) was
also arranged. This trip gave trainees an opportunity to interact with the citizens and engineers
involved in the implementation of the projects. Their queries ranged from how citizens mobilised
the community (in the case of Panchsheel Park) to how they managed financing the projects.
Participants also experienced first hand the techniques adopted in each of these cases.
A session that appraised participants to various rainwater harvesting legislations soon followed.
This session was aimed at making the group conversant with the plethora of laws on both
rainwater harvesting and groundwater recharging. Thereafter, R Jeya Kumar, builder from
Chennai who had been instrumental in propagating the concept of rainwater harvesting in his
town, addressed the participants and talked about the role of builders in the whole process. He
also talked about the benefits a builder can look forward to from such an initiative.
The enthusiastic response of participants makes CSE hopeful that this group would soon be
playing a key role in spreading the message of rainwater harvesting, and becoming the agents of
change.
Table 2 : Schedule
Day I: August
TIME
9:30-10:00
10:00- 10:15
10:15-12 :00

12:00-12:30
12:30-3:15
12:30-1:00
1:00-1:30
1:30-2:15
2:15-2:45
2:45-3:15
3:15-4:30
4:30-5:15

13, 2002
TOPIC
REGISTRATION
ABOUT THE TRAINING PROGRAMME AND ITS RELEVANCE TO THE
CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY
RAINWATER HARVESTING
AN OVER VIEW
FACTS AND FIGURES
RAINWATER HARVESTING TECHNIQUES
PLANNING AND DESIGNING OF A RAINWATER HARVESTING SYSTEM
PLANNING AND FOR A NEW RESIDENTIAL BUILDING AND AN EXISTING
BUILDING
LANDSCAPE PLANNING AND RAINWATER HARVESTING
LUNCH BREAK
DESIGNING OF RAINWATER HARVESTING SYSTEM
COST ESTIMATION OF RAINWATER HARVESTING SYSTEMS
A GROUP ASSIGNMENT ON PLANNING AND DESIGNING OF RAINWATER
HARVESTING
PRESENTATION BY PARTICIPANTS

DAY II: AUGUST 14, 2002

TIME
TOPIC
10:00-10:15
GUIDELINES FOR IMPLEMENTING RAINWATER HARVESTING SYSTEMS
10:15-10:40
INDICATORS FOR ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF RAINWATER HARVESTING
10:40-1:30
EXPOSURE VISITS TO SUCCESSFUL RAINWATER HARVESTING
PROJECTS
1:30-2:15
LUNCH BREAK
2:15-3:15
CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY AND URBAN RAINWATER HARVESTING
CHENNAI EXPERIENCES-R JEYA KUMAR
DELHI EXPERIENCES-AHMED ALI KHAN, ENGINEER, JAMIA HAMDARD
UNIVERSITY
3:15-4:00
LEGISLATIONS ON RAINWATER HARVESTING AND GROUNDWATER
RECHARGE
4 :00-4:30
CONCLUDING SESSION

INFORMATION KIT: Literature on all the topics discussed during the two days was compiled in
the form of a manual and was distributed to participants. The manual comprised of information on
the traditional water harvesting systems of Delhi, the current water scenario, a technical manual
on the techniques and designs procedures of urban rainwater harvesting, articles related to urban
water harvesting from Down To Earth and "Making Water Everybodys Business, CSEs
publication on policies and practices on rainwater harvesting.